The pie charts illustrate the changes in energy production from five different sources (oil, natural gas, coal, hydroelectric power and nuclear power) for the USA in two different years (1980 and 1990).

Overview

The overview contains the key features of the charts. Answer the questions below to find the key features.

What was the main source of energy in 1980?

What was the main source of energy in 1990?

Which produced the least energy in 1980?

Which produced the least energy in 1990?

Did the amount of energy produced by each source change a lot or just a little between the years?

Did all types of energy increase by 1990?

Now write your overview before you check the model. Model Answer

Overall, oil constituted the main source of energy production in both years, while hydroelectric power produced the least energy. There was a slight decrease in production from oil and natural gas, whereas an increase can be seen in the figures for coal and nuclear power.

Body Paragraph 1

This paragraph will give details about oil and hydroelectric power, which we highlighted in the overview above.

Tips

You will need to write one sentence about oil comparing the percentage each year and then one sentence about hydroelectric power comparing the years.

You must add data (percentages and dates) to support each sentence

Here are two example sentences. Fill in the gaps with the right words.

The amount of energy produced by oil in the USA 1. ………………. 42% in 1980 and this, then, 2. ………………….. to a third (33%) in 1990. The proportion of energy from hydroelectric power, 3………………, remained constant in both years ………a mere 5%. Answers

accounted for / comprised of / made up / was

fell / declined / dropped / went down / decreased

on the other hand / by contrast / in contrast ( we use a linker to highlight that this is opposing information to the previous sentence)

at

Body Paragraph 2

This paragraph will give detail about the other sources of energy in the pie charts.

Tips

which sources increased?

which sources decreased?

what were the percentages for each source?

Again, fill in the gaps in these model sentences.

The energy generated by natural gas, which was the second 1. …………… source of energy in the USA in 1980, fell 2. ………. 1% to a quarter of all energy produced in 1990. In contrast, production by coal 3. ……………… from 22% to 27% in 1990 4. …………….. there was a 5% rise in energy from nuclear power to reach 10% in the second year. Answers

Hello, I was paid attention to your classes in youtube when I was prepared to the ILETS tests.
I was writing this essay before the test day.

The pie graph illustrates that dominant energy sources used in USA are oil, natural gas,coal, hydroelectric power and nuclear power in 1980 and 1990.

Overall, it is obvious that oil, natural gas, and coal is the most popular energy sources among the five major sources in USA during this decade. And the least popular energy sources are hydroelectric power as well as nuclear power. (it would be better to write both most and least popular ?)Besides, the oil and coal show have the biggest fluctuations compared with the rest of the others at this period.

The primary energy source is oil which comprised of 42% in 1950, while it faced a strongly decreases of 9% to 42% in 1990. The dramatical fluctuations of oil are significant differences from the slight changes of natural gas and coal, the usage of natural gas is declined from 26% to 26% slightly, which is mere 1% decrease 10 years later. Coal is the only energy sources which increased from 22% to 27% among this three types of major energy sources. in 1990 and 1990.

With regards to the remaining usages of least popular energy sources, there is 5% growth in nuclear power (5% in 1980 and 10% in 1990 respectively). The hydroelectric power is the only energy sources stay the same as the original(5%) among this five major energy sources in USA over the decade.

When you have a lot of data, for example with two charts or a graph and a table, you need to make a decision about how much information you put in the overview. Of course the key features are usually the highest and lowest but you must decide if you want to include them both. You are being marked on your ability to select information.

Hi madam, hope you are doing well.
Would you mind giving your precious opinion on the following pie charts,

The supplied pie charts illustrate information about the comparison of the US spending patterns from 1966 to 1996.

The two stuffs on which the US highly spent in two different years were food and cars. They expended 44% on food and 23% on cars in 1966 but, the calculation almost reversed whereas, the expenditure on food fell down at 14% and it extended up at 45% on cars back in 1996.

On the other hand, the US spent 7% on restaurants in 1966 but, such expenditure got a growth that marked double of it, 14% back in 1996. Similarly, spending on computers was only 1% in 1966 but they gave a bit importance on it as the expenditure augmented up at 10% in 1996.

As opposed to, the expense on petrol had little difference between 1966 and 1996. Besides, furniture took 11% of their expenditure in 1966 but, it plunged by 2% in 1996. Moreover, it seems American lost their interest in books as they spent less on it than the other stuffs in two different years. The expenditure on book was 6% in 1966 whilst, it got the lowest point, 1% back in 1996.

Overall, it can be summarized that according to the US spending patterns, they spent much of their expenditures on food and cars than the rest of the stuffs between 1966 and 1996.

Hello Liz came across this question
Today in many countries old people are given insufficient respect.
What is the reason?
What problems can this bring in society?
Now in this case how do u answer a discussion or an opinion?kindly advise thanks.

The overview explains the logic: …oil constituted the main source of energy production in both years while hydroelectric power produced the least energy. That means the two key features are put in one paragraph.

hi liz thanks a lot for your wonderful work.i am really thankful to you because i am learning so much from your lessons and i think you have the best teaching techniques so far .i am planing to take my exam in the next few weeks .wish me best of luck.
regards

The pie charts illustrates the five different sources of energy (oil,natural gas,coal,hydroelectric & nuclear power) for USA in two two different years (1980 &1990).
over all ,oil was the main source in both years, however there was slight fluctuation in the nuclear power and furthermore there was uptrend in coal source and a small decrease in natural gas.
In 1980 the major source of energy in the USA was oil which comprised of 42% but in next decade (1990) it decline to 33% although, it remain main source for both two periods
The second largest source of energy was natural gas and proportion of natural gas was slightly reduced from (26% to 25%) in 1990.Moreover the percentage of hydro electric remained constant in both years.
The coal was the third major source of energy in the USA which rose from ( 22% to 27%) in 1990.However there was also a rise of 5% in the energy of nuclear power which reached about 10% in 1990.

One of the sentence in this lesson confuses me. In body paragraph 2, you wrote that “production increased from 22% to 27%”. But I looked for the dictionary and googled, I cannot find this usage. As far as I know, the word “increase” can be used in two ways: increases from number A to number B; or increases by xx%. Is this “increase from A% to B%” correct or just a typo?

Hi liz, You video and tips are too much helpful for me. But i am in confusing situation to write task 1 when it comprises two more graph (such as it comprises with bar, line, & pie chart). How can i complete this task easily? Pls give me some suggestions. I am waiting for your response. finally thanks for your excellent tips and videos.

Can you please kindly check my overview if this still a good format… Please include an advice…

Overall, Oil was the major source of power generation in both years in the USA, in contrast to hydroelectric power which had the lowest share of energy. Meanwhile natural gas and coal both constituted for approximately a quarter in two given years.

In the overview, it says “there is a slight decrease in production from oil…”. But the pie chart shows a drop from 42% to 33%. Comparing to other resources, this is the biggest change. Why do we choose to say “slight decrease”?

Hi Liz,i want to ask you about the correct methor of reporting facts n figures when there alot of variables.For example: The use of different fuel sources for energy production,in two different years,by two different countries.How shud we proceed with that kind os Task 1?shud we write one para about one country and describing the main trends in that country between two years.is it so?

Yes, that’s right. Because there is so much information, you need to oerganise your report logically and simply to help the examiner. As each country has two pie charts showing change over time, put one country in one body paragraph (showing the increases and decreases) and then put the other country in a separate body paragraph. Paragraphing is all about logic.
Liz

These pie charts show change over a period of two different years. Your task is to highlight and report the changes – increases and decreases. You don’t need to compare them in the body paragraphs, just report the increases and decreases with data (percentages).
Liz

What word can be substituted for the word “part”? [like the largest “part” of the pie chart is oil] I only know several but still don’t know if they are correct: portion, respondent, percentage, rate, region
And with this prompt, is it a good idea to include these in the overall paragraph: largest part + smallest part + how nuclear power was one of the least but increased the most in those 2 years instead?

Unfortunately, the list you gave are not synonyms and can’t all be used. Firstly, you must look at the subject of the pie chart, lets take energy produced by fuel source. You can write “the main fuel source is” or “the largest amount of fuel was produced by oil” or “the majority of fuel was generated by …” or “oil was the predominate fuel source”. If your pie charts show fields of work, you can write “the biggest sector was” or “the main field of work was” or “the majority of people were employed in..”. The word “percentage” can always be paraphrased by “proportion” or “rate”. The word “region” only refers to geography (countries or areas).
Liz

The two pie charts depict the usage of main energy sources by the American people from 1980 to 1990 in five different grounds ( oil, natural gas, coal, hydroelectric and nuclear power)

At the first glance, the pie charts give a clear view that both in 1980 and 1990 coal was mostly used energy source in comparison to hydroelectric power and nuclear power in 1980 and only hydroelectric power in 1990, which were the least usage energy in USA. Furthermore, it is seen that coal and nuclear power utilization had been increased whereas oil and natural gas usage had been decreased from 1980 to 1990. But the hydroelectric power consumption remained stationary over the 10 period time.

Oil and natural gas utilization had been decreased by 9% and only 1% respectively in comparison to coal consumption which had been increased by 5% in 1990 from 1980.

In case of hydroelectric power, consumption was not changed in 1990 (5%) but nuclear power energy usage rose to 10% in 1990.

Taking two different years(1980 and 1990, the two pie charts provide a background information on energy production for the USA from five different sources namely oil, natural gas, coal,hydroelectric power and nuclear power.

According to the data, the proportion of energy produced was 42% in 1980, but it it suffer a slight decrease in 1990 by 39%.The amount of natural gas also decreased from 26% to 25% in that time. The percentage of hydroelectric power produced remained stable(5%) in both years given.

Regarding nuclear power , there was a slight grown in it amount produced the figure standing at 22% in 1980 and 27% in 1990.However, the percentage of coal produced doubled from 5% in 1980 to 10% in 1990.

Overall, it is noticeable that the amount of oil produced is higher in both years whereas hydroelectric power produced the least energy.The percentage of natural gas decreased slightly(26% in 1980) by 25% ten years after.
That what I was able to do teacher. Please read it and help me to improve.

The bar charts below illustrate six types of household expenses in a county in two different years (1950 and 2010).

Overall, both in 1950 and 2010 housing and food expenditures were the most significant, accounted together in both years for over a half of all spendings. However, in 2010, the money spent on housing decreased considerably whereas increase can be seen in transportation, others and food expenditures, which became the most popular. Moreover, there was only a minimal change in health care and education spendings in both years.

With regard to housing and food spendings, in 1950 the amonut of money spent on housing comprised of 72,9% while food expenditures represented only 11,2%. Otherwise in 2010, the difference between food and housing spendings balanced out, and the figures accounted for 34% and 22% consecutively.

Furthermore, in 2010, there was a considerable growth in money spent on transportation (14%) and other expenses (19,2%) as opposed to year 1950 where those figures were over a three times lower and accounted for 3,3% and 4,4% respectively. Differently, there was just a slight 2,3% decrease in health care spendings, and decline of about a mere 0,2% in education expenditures.

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Hi, my name is Elizabeth (Liz). I am your IELTS teacher and the author of this website. My aim is to help you understand IELTS and achieve a high score. I am an experienced teacher and completed my IELTS examiner training in 2008.